U.S. consumers spent a record $1.042 billion online on Black Friday, a 26% increase over the same day last year, according to new figures from comScore, an Internet analytics firm. Shoppers also found time amid the cooking, eating and watching football to spend an additional $633 million on Thanksgiving Day, a 32% jump from the year before.
Black Friday is the heaviest online shopping day of the year so far. The sales total is the first time e-commerce spending on that day has topped $1 billion.

It's "The Year of the Soap" and it has been a good year for soap-related merchandise (books, DVDs, CDs, etc.). What are the soapiest super-deals this Cyber Monday? We proudly present our Top 12 Great Christmas Present Ideas for Soap Opera Fans:

1. THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL "How It All Began" DVD
Cyber Monday happens to fall this year on the final airdate for Susan Flannery as her beloved BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL character, Stephanie Forrester, dies. So what better gift than the brand new "How It All Began" DVD featuring the first 16 episodes of the series which aired back in 1987?

Released on November 6, the set is Region 1 and contains 4-discs with an 87-minute run time. See how it all began for Stephanie, Eric, Ridge and Brooke and the Forrester and Logan families.

2. Jeanne Cooper's "Not Young, Still Restless: A Memoir"
The long-awaited memoir from one of daytime television's most celebrated and beloved actresses finally arrived in July.

The book follows Cooper as she makes her way from small-town Taft, California, to the heart of the Los Angeles movie industry, where the list of her feature-film costars reads like a Who's Who of Hollywood's Golden Age—Maureen O'Hara, Raymond Burr, David Janssen, Robert Taylor, Tony Curtis, Shelley Winters, Glenn Ford, and Lee J. Cobb, to name just a few. Jeanne writes vividly of her first foray into the new phenomenon of television and how she found her home at Y&R.

3. "The Young and Restless Life of William J. Bell: Creator of The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful"
Released in June, Michael Maloney and Lee Phillip Bell bring fans insight into William J. Bell, one of the great visionaries in the industry.

For the first time fans will be able to discover the true stories behind the creation and growth of the most popular and iconic soap operas of all time, and they'll learn about the man behind their favorite storylines. Filled with dramatic turns, dangerous risks, and an overall devotion to bringing life to the show, this biography will offer fans a backstage pass to the fascinating world of soaps.

5. "Coincidence Is God's Way of Remaining Anonymous: Reflections on Daytime Dramas and Divine Intervention"
DAYS OF OUR LIVES alum Gloria Loring released a new book in October.

Ten million daily viewers loved her as Liz Chandler on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Yet while the cameras rolled and the fictional plotline for Days unfolded each day, Loring was quietly wrestling with her own real-life dramas—the diagnosis of her young son's diabetes, the unraveling of her marriage, and a nagging inner voice from childhood that told her something was wrong. "Coincidence Is God's Way of Remaining Anonymous" is Loring's spiritual exploration of how coincidence helped her make sense of life's challenges and uncertainties.

6. NASHVILLE Soundtrack "Music of Nashville"
Officially released on December 11, you can pre-order the NASHVILLE soundtrack now.

The project features new music from the cast – Connie Britton, Hayden Panettiere, Charles Esten, Jonathan Jackson, Clare Bowen and Sam Palladio – who perform in each episode. Over 500,000 digital downloads from the breakout series have been sold to date.

7. DAYS OF OUR LIVES 2013 Wall Calendar
Keep track of the days of 2013 with a DAYS OF OUR LIVES calendar.

An exciting new entry to the Sourcebooks Days of our Lives Publications line, providing great photographs, fun facts, and quotes from your favorite Days stars! It's the perfect calendar for the 3 million viewers of the show- - now they can display their Days love in a new way, each and every day. This fun wall calendar features photos of the most popular characters, as well as extra information that any Days fan is sure to appreciate!

8. Indie Soap Merchandise
The world of Indie Soaps continues to expand with more shows and more talent than ever before. You can purchase DVDs of seasons, t-shirts, hats, cups, jewelry and much more. Check out stores from a few Indie Soap Award-winning shows below:

Bill previewed the book for us in an interview earlier this year: "We are both interested in History. Susan was a History major in college. We both enjoy every aspect of it, and as you know, we both enjoy theater. So for us to go to The Regency Period of the early 1800s was quite natural, although we had to do a lot of serious research. We read more than one hundred books. We went to the actual locations in person to see what was there. We wanted to write a story about a woman in 1803 who people could relate to today."

10. "Becoming Bold & Beautiful: 25 Years of Making the World's Most Popular Daytime Soap Opera" Hardcover Coffee Table Book
Released earlier this month, the book takes a rare and revealing look at what happens outside the camera frame as the cast and crew work to create episodes of the series, in studio in Los Angeles; stage 31 of CBS Television City, its home for 25 years; and in such beautiful locations as Paradise Cove in Malibu, California; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico' and Aspen, Colorado.

Travel back in time to the inception of the series in 1987 and the early years, including the original press kit and early black and white photos. See how the series creators, the Bell family, mirror the fictional Forrester family. With a special section celebrating Darlene Conley (as knock-off queen "Sally Spectra") and never-before-published photos of how it all began, fans of the series will live through the early days of the series again.

11. DALLAS: Seasons 1-14 and The Movie Collection (14 Pack) DVD
Beloved actor Larry Hagman, who played J.R. Ewing since 1978, passed away on Friday. You can order the entire 14 seasons of the original DALLAS plus the movies that followed from the WBShop and watch J.R. from the very beginning all over again.

12. DARK SHADOWS: The Complete Original Series (Deluxe Edition)
Released earlier this year, this deluxe edition boxed set contains every eerie episode of the original Gothic suspense series DARK SHADOWS (1966-1971) plus a wealth of bonus interviews with the stars and creative members that made the supernatural thriller a cult favorite and an enduring television classic.

1 comment:

I know there's some Downton Abbey merchandise hitting the stores (e.g. 2013 wall and desk calendars). And Jessica Fellows coffee-table book "The Chronicles of Downton Abbey" was just released a week or so ago, obviously with Christmas in mind.. lol!